Narendra Damodardas Modi is born on September 17,1950, in Vadnagar village, Mehsana district. As a youth, he worked in his family's tea stall. Modi joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student's wing of the Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh (RSS), and later joined the parent organisation.

Modi joins the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the young party taps into Hindu nationalism that had engulfed the entire country. The BJP wins a majority in Gujarat in 1995 and Modi quickly rises up the ranks. Very soon, Modi is appointed the party's general secretary in the state unit.

Narendra Modi comes into the limelight as one of the key choreographers of BJP leader L.K. Advani's Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya.

Modi is appointed as National Secretary of the BJP in charge of 5 states and later promoted to general secretary in 1998

In February that year, he faced widespread flak for failing to contain brutal riots following killing of 59 passengers in a train fire in Godhra. More than 1,000 people, mostly from the minority community, were killed in the subsequent riots. Modi is also accused of encouraging the rioters which he has strongly denied.